So Much Rock. Such Little Time.

Weekend Report of the 1st of May 1999

Last weekend I spent two days bolting a project through the cave left of Ton Stein Sherben at Centurian Walls. It took me most of the two days to hand drill the five bolts under the giant ceiling. I used every aid trick in the book - hooks, dodgy cams, tension traverses ect..

This weekend I returned with Nick to have a crack at my new project and to play on some other lines. After an extremely early 6am start we were bounding up the hill to the cliff still in the morning coldness. This didn't last long as the sun struck the orange rock. This is definitely a winter cliff. After some difficulty in clip sticking the first bolt I started up my roof project named Winged Corpse. It is so named because it by-passes a huge Eagles Nest up high which has the remnants of a dead bird in it. The first steep moves of the route are impossible so I did the required batman start. The climb follows a large rounded overhung flake, then a series of roof heucos and finally a juggy headwall. The section up to the heucos went smoothly. The moves are hard and pumpy but all possible. The best move of the climb is a huge sideways roof dyno from the last bit of the roof flake to the first of the heucos. After a few trys I finally latched the heuco as my feet cut loose. Thank god its a huge hold! The climb will go at about grade 25 but will require some mega endurance. I better start training.

Two views of Winged Corpse.

I bailed down and Nick and I split up to look at some other new route potential on the wall. Nick rapped down an orange bulging line reminiscent of Arapiles. It was relatively short but looked great. Several long moves between horizontals led to an interesting thin traverse left. From a good break it was then a big throw for a mediaorche hold. This was undoubtedly the crux and looked very hard. Whilst Nick checked out the gear placements I installed a chain above the wall right of Nick's project Killer Wolf. This line looked mega. The start is a sloping traverse left in a big scoop to gain some good jugs. From this it is a short roof to a big break. Then above that is an ultra sustained thin wall with pockets. It looked very good and required no cleaning.

Nick and I took turns working his new route. The start moves pumped you quickly and by the time the crux arrives I was feeling screwed. Nick eventually got the crux move after several attempts and then so did I. It was suddenly a race for the first ascent. In typical Nick fashion he got the redpoint on the next try. I attempted to second him but found myself struggling at the crux. About twenty attempts later I finally gave up and hauled up the rope. The climbing was great but not very sustained at the grade. The move is solid grade 24 but the rest of the climb is about grade 20 so we graded it 23. It is done on all natural gear which is a great bonus. At least it wasn't another project like the other three now sitting at Centurion! Nick named the route Push It Upstairs 15m 23.

Nick on the FFA of Push it Upsatirs (23)

Nick at the base of Push it Upstairs. Check out the potential grade 30 overhang route behind him!

We then attempted to toprope my new project. The start was hard and the amount of rope drag plus the overhanging nature of the route meant I only got one go at the bouldery start moves. I fell off and swung out from the cliff. It seemed possible but could only really be worked on lead. I hand over handed up the rope with difficulty to the vertical end section. I played with the moves but they were much harder than I had expected. Really thin pocket pulling on an overhanging wall just took it out of me. Again, these moves would be easier to work on lead. Every time I fell off it was a big mission to swing back into the rock. The price you pay for steepness! I finished off the day with another attempt at Winged Corpse. It was really just a forced climb to get my draws back down. Sadly, I was rather tired and had to leave the highest one. The top sloping roof flake was just too hard for me.

On Sunday we grouped up with Poul and three of his fellow Danish countrymen for a day out at Sunset Crag at the Asses Ear. Nick had spent the previous weekend at this cliff ticking some new routes with Grampians new-route-aholic James McIntosh. He had done four average climbs and had fallen up a mega classic naturally protected face. His mission for Sunday was to get his new route clean. The walk in was fairly strenuous. A thirty minute steep bush bash up a gully got you to the base of a three part wall. The left side was big and chossy, the middle section was slabby and easy whilst the feature wall was the right side. Before Nick and James' trip the previous weekend there was only one route on this right wall. The wall is smooth grey rock with excellent small horizontals and some good cracks. Nick had blasted a line directly up the smoothest section of this wall at grade 22. He had taken one fall so was keen to tick the clean ascent. This he did with style whilst I snapped away with my camera. The route was fairly technical and quite strenuous. He only just managed to stick the crux layaway moves near the top. He called it Mirror Dancer. To the left of his route was the other obvious line, twin cracks on the left side of an arete. I rapped down, kicked some loose blocks off, found some gear placements and decided to go for the flash first ascent. The beginning slab was delicate and without good gear. After this the wall bulged above but with good thin layways and slopers. With just adequate gear I cranked up into the cracks. I was sickly pumped but the thought of plummeting off onto the ledge below forced me on. The sideways rock #1 that was about to fall out didn't make for inspiring protection! I kept it together and topped out. I had pushed myself fairly hard on this first ascent but it felt so good to get it clean first go. I named the route Ecstasy and gave it grade 21. The rest of the afternoon was take up with another three first ascents by all of us. Poul got in first with WA Syndrome (19) which climbed a small roof crack, then Nick climbed an excellent right hand variant to his 22 at grade 19 and finally I climbed a wide corner and arete called Kitchianity (17). All the climbs were good quality and required no bolting. Poul's Danish friends had a little rope trouble at the end of the day so it was an after dark mission to get back to the car. We dined on Pizza's at the Sicilian Pizza bar in Ararat. Their only customers appeared to be climbers. We were the third table of feral types scoffing down the good food.

Nick on the FFA of Mirror Dancer (22), Sunset Crags.